Independent Russian gas producer Novatek has announced the first delivery of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Yamal project in the Arctic to an area near the port of Honningsvag in northern Norway.
“The Arc7 ice-class LNG tanker ‘Vladimir Rusanov’ successfully reloaded an LNG cargo delivered from the Yamal LNG facility at Sabetta to the lower ice-class designated tanker ‘Pskov’, which will deliver the reloaded cargo to customers in North-West Europe,” Novatek said.
“The first ship-to-ship LNG transshipment is a very important commercial milestone for us,” said Novatek’s Deputy Board Chairman Lev Feodosyev. He explained that it allows for the optimization of transport costs “by decreasing the travel distance of the Arc7 ice-class tankers and to ensure timely offloading of LNG from Yamal LNG project.”
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Novatek earlier announced future large-scale LNG transshipment projects in Kamchatka and the Murmansk regions.
The $ 27 billion Yamal LNG project began operations last December and has already shipped two million tons of the liquefied fuel. The LNG plant is expected to have three trains with an annual capacity of 16.5 million tons per year when fully operational.
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Currently, Novatek ships LNG from two trains with a total capacity of about 11 million tons per annum. The launch of the third stage with a capacity of 5.5 million tons per year is planned for the beginning of 2019.
In September, Novatek announced plans for one additional line able to produce a million tons of LNG per year. Besides Novatek, Yamal LNG’s shareholders also include France’s Total, China’s CNPC and the Silk Road Fund.
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